


Engineering and Xenogenetics

by nerdsherpa



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Asari Characters, F/F, Strap-Ons, Workplace Relationship, asari sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 17:18:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10391910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdsherpa/pseuds/nerdsherpa
Summary: Erys T'Vani was an Andromeda Initiative geneticist and Aida Bellus was an Andromeda Initiative engineer. Together, they were to outline architectural and organizational plans for Ark Hyperion's genetic library, and its backup library aboard the Nexus.You see asari every day, Aida had reasoned with herself,You've had asari professors, even. You can't assume she'd be interested. Asari aren't actually promiscuous, that's a xenophobic misconception.You're horny, you're not insensitive.It hadn't worked.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This work exists for two reasons: 
> 
> 1\. I realized I'd never written any femslash  
> 2\. I wanted to exorcise my headcanons about how asari sex works
> 
> And frankly I simply felt like I couldn't remember the original trilogy well enough to engagingly write Shep/Liara, and I wanted to finish it _before Andromeda_ came out (just under the wire, as you can see) and took up all my brain space. So I made up some Andromeda Initiative scientists. Enjoy!

Erys T'Vani was an Andromeda Initiative geneticist and Aida Bellus was an Andromeda Initiative engineer. Together, they were to outline architectural and organizational plans for Ark Hyperion's genetic library, and its backup library aboard the Nexus.

"I look forward to working well together," the asari woman had said as they shook hands. Businesslike, but with a friendly warmth. Erys was a few inches shorter, and as Aida responded in kind, she thought _I bet her head would just fit under my chin if we were —_ and she'd cut the thought off there.

A few minutes later Aida had made a joke, Erys had laughed, and Aida had realized that she had a giant stupid grin on her face.

_You see asari every day_ , she'd reasoned with herself, _You've had asari professors, even_. _You can't assume she'd be interested. Asari aren't actually promiscuous, that's a xenophobic misconception._

_You're horny, you're not insensitive._

It hadn't worked.

* * *

A day later, as Erys shifted several ceramic pots around her office, clearing space for Aida's tablet and stool at the secondary workstation.

Her social proficiency scores being fairly high for her speciality, Aida had spent most of her time in the Initiative in cross-disciplinary work, sharing workspace with whomever she was consulting with at the time. Her own small cubicle was spare and little-lived-in. In contrast, Erys' office was a small jungle of apparently flourishing plant samples, and an equally impressive array of diplomas.

Aida tried not to look like she was staring — either at the profusion of leaves or Erys' rear as she bent repeatedly to set pots in a corner of the floor.

"Sorry I couldn't get that done before you arrived," she'd said, straightening up from the last one, dusting her hands, and gasped.

Aida froze, trying not to look like she'd frozen. She'd swept her gaze away before Erys had turned around, hadn't she?

"I just realized," Erys continued, "I haven't asked you why you joined the Initiative!"

Aida masked her relief with a short laugh. "You want to know, what, like, what I said at my recruitment?"

Erys crooked an eyebrow. "Only if it was true. I try to ask everyone I work with."

Aida hesitated, thumbing her ergonomic adjustments into the workstation and gathering her hair into a messy, curly plait, the only thing she'd ever really been able to do with it.

"...I won't laugh, I promise. Here, I'll go first," Erys continued, as she waved her own tablet display to life, "Three thousand years ago, asari geneticists thought that the evolution of higher forms of life would be impossible without the environmental presence of Element Zero. Since then we've learned a thing or two about making predictions about the complete nature of biological life. The sample size always turns out to have been too small.

"There's much we've been able to observe about the Golden Worlds, and from there we can assume that their orbital dynamics, geophysics and climates will behave as our own. Deeper than that…" She paused, before continuing.

"Andromeda could reshape our entire understanding of life. It's tantalizing."

Fishing her stylus out of her pants pocket and settling into the stool, Aida felt Erys' gaze return to her. "What about you?" the asari woman asked.

Aida cast her memory back. It had been a while, and a good half of what she'd said was just whatever she'd thought would get her in, but there _had_ been structural foundation of truth beneath the edifice.

"Well, what I said was that I became an engineer because I like solving problems. Figuring out how to move a million colonists and all the required technology and supplies two and a half million light years is only the _first_ puzzle. Who knows what we'll find when we get there."

She shrugged, finally. "What we do with the Andromeda Initiative might be the biggest act of problem solving this galaxy will ever engage in. And I want in. True enough for you?"

"Yes," Erys regarded her with a warm and steady gaze, "I believe it is."

And that was the first moment that Aida knew she might lose the job of a lifetime on workplace sexual harassment charges.

* * *

The second was while Erys was explaining the cryogenic needs of various types of botanical specimens, a few weeks later, while Aida sketched and plotted those parameters into geometric reality. Not just seeds for major human food staples, but larger, less hardy or compact bits of plant like roots for carrots, tubers for potatoes, bulbs for the entire onion family — the sheer number of plants Aida had thought herself familiar with but had turned out to actually be an onion putting on airs had been unnerving.

"Is that a daffodil?"

"Um." Erys paused to enlarge the image. " _Yes_ , provided that 'daffodil' is a more common name for the subgenus _Narcissus Pax_. Sorry. I haven't looked too closely at the non-edible, comfort varietals."

Aida drew closer to her console without realizing it. "I didn't know we were bringing any. Flowers, I mean."

"Of course," Erys smiled up at her, "What's the point of leaving this galaxy if we don't bring any beautiful things with us?"

"Are we bringing irises?"

A few strokes of her stylus, and a brilliant blue-violet burst took shape before them. "A few. Do you find them very beautiful?"

"Yes," Aida said, "you make me think of them." _A week. A week before they fire me._

Erys laughed, "The similarity between the genus name and my own _is_ a neat coincidence."

Aida coughed. "And they're almost always purple, blue, or somewhere in between."

"Oh, are they?" the indigo-skinned woman said, slower than her usual cadence. "I didn't know you were botanically inclined, Engineer Bellus."

_Two days_ , Aida thought, withdrawing to her tablet, _Two days maximum_ , and out loud, she said "I had a print in my college dorm of a painting of an iris. By an old Earth artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. You should look up her work."

"Perhaps I will," Erys had replied, and she was smiling while she said it.

_Maybe three days_.

* * *

In the end, Aida made it all the way to the end of the project phase — specifically, the post-final-authorization happy hour — with her big mouth shut around every other bit of flirty banter that had occurred to her as she and Erys had discussed enzyme coupling, RNA unzipping and the construction constraints of keeping a series of small cavities moist for six hundred years.

She'd spend the day more dressed up than was her usual wont, in anticipation of a workplace event. Dark slacks without proper pockets and a jacket that she'd forgotten in her cubicle, _of course_. And as she nursed the evening's first gin and wondered how long it would take for anyone she actually wanted to talk to to show up, someone did.

"I looked up your O'Keeffe," Erys said, as she placed her own finished drink on the bar — but with very fresh ice, Aida noted. "Did you know there are some very interesting interpretations of her flower paintings?"

"Uh," she was suddenly grateful that she'd undone the second button of her shirt, for its use as a cooling system, "I was aware of that, yes."

"And you said that I make you think of her work."

" _Actually_ , I said that you make me think of irises."

"Still," Erys said slowly, playing with the straw in her ice, "You should be careful. That sort of thing can make a person wonder whether you have some sort of ulterior message you're trying to convey."

Aida swallowed hard. _Oh god. I_ am _horny and insensitive._

"Oh!" Erys gasped before she could say anything, and opened her purse, "I never told you, there's a Thessian bioform whose name sounds like yours as well."

"Erys…" Aida took a deep breath, set her drink down, and when Erys raised her eyes, continued. "I _was_ trying to signal that I'm attracted to you. It was unprofessional of me. I'm sorry. "

But the smaller woman just… smiled?

"It _was_ unprofessional. But as of our presentation this afternoon, we're not direct coworkers anymore." Erys leaned her back against the bar and Aida realized with a start that the fashionable panels of contrasting color on her cocktail dress were actually cut-outs, exposing a swooping curve of her violet skin from ribs to hip on each side.  "In fact," she continued, "we might not see each other ever again after tonight."

Then Erys produced a small tablet and tilted the screen towards her, but not very far, so that Aida had to close the distance between them and bend, her chin a few inches from the other woman's shoulder.

"We have a comfort animal called an eeda," she said, scrolling through image after image of hairless, snouted quadrupeds with what Aida thought were alarmingly large eyes. "They've been domesticated for millennia and are very popular on asari-dominated social media feeds."

Aida tried to wipe the discomfited expression from her face, and Erys laughed. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's just that Earth comfort animals are generally…" she straightened up, planning her next words, "...fuzzier. I suppose humans find that more comforting. To touch, I mean."

"Hmm," Erys swiped the tablet off and slipped it back into her clutch, turning to face Aida's direction and, in doing so, stepping that much closer. "I suppose that asari prefer… skin-to-skin contact." She accompanied the sentence with her fingers, brushing them lightly down Aida's forearm, which was laid on the bar, coming to rest in four warm points above her wrist. Then, she raised her eyes up through her lashes to meet Aida's.

_That just happened_ , Aida screamed at herself, _Smile! Say something! You are good with women! Act like it!_

Smiling _hugely_ , she reached her hand to Erys' side, brushing her knuckles down the bare skin of her ribs and waist, uncurling it to fit the flat of her palm and fingers around her hip, brown skin on indigo. "Like this?" she asked.

Erys' lips on her own were warm and smooth — everything about her was so smooth — and she brought the hand that wasn't currently curled around Aida's wrist to rest against the crook of her neck, just underneath her shirt collar. Their tongues brushed and Aida felt a wave of sensation — in her wrist, her neck, her mouth and her hand at Erys' hip — like gooseflesh, but… warm. Like electricity but… soft.

They parted. "Like _that_ ," the asari woman sighed.

"Erys," Aida cleared her throat, "Would you like to get out of here?"

* * *

"Make yourself at home," Aida said as she shut the door to her apartment.

"Someone ought to," Erys laughed softly behind her, and she turned to see her surveying the kitchen table. A plastiboard box and half its contents were strewn across the surface — a stack of plates, a stack of books, some framed photos and a tangle of miscellaneous electric cords.

"Shit. Sorry, I tried to do a bit of unpacking last night. Forgot this mess was all still out."

"When was the move?"

"Nine months ago?" Aida put on her biggest unapologetic grin as she began shoving cords back into the box. "Every time I try to unpack another crate all I can think is that I'll be packing it up again soon."

Erys laughed again, louder, stopping Aida's hand with her own, " _Don't_ worry about it." She pulled the hand to her waist, drawing them closer, "The Nexus and Arks won't begin construction for months and launch is still years away, you know."

"I've never really been good at waiting. But," Aida murmured, bending to brush her lips down Erys' jaw and neck, relishing the feeling of soft arms snaking around her shoulders, "I am very much enjoying _this_ moment."

There was another wash of that strange sensation from when they'd kissed, that flashed across her cheek and lips.

"I'm _very_ good at waiting," Erys said, from the bottom of a deep, slow breath, as she pulled away. And then: "Like waiting until the project-phase is over before you come on to a coworker."

As Aida stammered, Erys stepped deftly through the nearby doorway. "Did you know," she flicked on the living room lights, "That my apartment has the same layout as yours?"

"Thank the Initiative," Aida said absently as she watched her move to the couch with easy familiarity. _God, staring at her ass is so much more fun now that you know the feeling is mutual_.

Erys settled at one corner of the couch, slipping off her flats, and when Aida sat down as well Erys tucked herself against Aida's side. Aida let her arm fall naturally around her, only to find her hand on warm, smooth skin. That put the full image of Erys' dress back in her mind, and the feeling of her lips. She found herself examining the subtle gradient of color over the sweeping top of Erys' head, mere inches from her face.

"Erys," she said slowly, picking over her words, "I'd like to kiss the top of your head right now, but I don't know how sensitive asari crests are, or if that would be an... appropriate, um, form of foreplay."

"Oh, it would be very appropriate! Crests aren't particularly sensitive along the top, but become increasingly so the closer they are to the nape of the ne _hhhhahh_."

Aida smiled at the feeling of Erys' fingers curling around her side, and continued the migration of her lips — until she squirmed away, giggling.

"Oh god, sorry, that tickled?"

"Hahaha, _yes_."

"Sorry!"

"It's _alright_ ," Erys answered, kindly, putting a hand to Aida's cheek. "You've never had sex with an asari before?"

"Never. But I, um, did some research…"

"My, how _optimistic_ of you," she interrupted, in mock amazement.

Aida half-groaned, laughing, "I swear to god it was actual research and not just porn." _There was absolutely some porn_. "The educational sites actually show up first in search results, anyway, which is very impressive."

"Well, it _is_ in our best interest as a species to keep everyone informed," Erys said, and got to her feet, only to hitch up her dress and reseat herself, straddling Aida's lap.

Aida stared up at her face, feeling her own heartbeat quicken.

"I _love_ the ones who do research," she murmured, tilting Aida's chin up and bringing their lips together, "Tell me about your findings, Engineer Bellus."

But when Erys pulled back Aida followed, kissing her, wrapping her arms around her waist, running her hand up Erys' back. And Erys let her, sliding her hands up Aida's neck, tilting their faces together, that now familiar friction erupting wherever they touched.

"OK," Aida said, long moments later, her forehead resting on Erys' collarbone, catching her breath, "OK." She leaned back against the couch cushions, and Erys gingerly touched the thick curl that had fallen in front of her face.

"Go ahead," Aida nodded, and Erys took the end of it gently between two fingers.

"I've never been with a human with hair this long and … I don't know the word for it, honestly." She pulled the dark curl up by the end, and laid it gently over the top of Aida's head, where it immediately slipped back down in front of her face.

Aida tucked it behind her ear. "Then you've been with humans before." Well, that made things simpler, even if it left her the less experienced one. It had been a long time since she'd been the less experienced partner, and she hoped she remembered how.

"Yes, I have, but…" Erys paused, as if considering. "No, you first."

"OK," Aida settled back, curiosity stirring once more. "The main difference between asari and most sentients is they — um — _you_ , reproduce through biotic connection. So, you don't have vaginas. I mean — you do have _vaginas_. But they evolved for birth, not for conception. They're not … not, um —"

"Fuckable," Erys said, plainly.

"Right." Aida said, possibly a little fast. "Sorry if this is coming out sort of… dry. If there's a way to make this sexy, I'm —"

"You're doing just fine," Erys said patiently. "We've established that vaginal sex is not something I find pleasurable, but as many people of all species know, there are perfectly fine alternatives for when you find yourself with a penetrative partner."

"Oh."

Erys smiled, reached between them and began unbuttoning Aida's shirt, "You can continue."

"Ah. Um. Asari evolved to reach orgasm by biotically linking their nervous system to their partner's, so you don't have physical sex organs, either, like a — a clit."

"Clit?"

"It's colloquial."

" _Ah_ , I get it. Correct. As you've already discovered, we do have erogenous zones that humans find intuitive and familiar, but very few asari can come from physical stimulation alone." Erys finished with the last button and flicked Aida's shirt open, "I knew someone in college who said she could come from having her crests licked, but I think she was just trying to impress a drell."

Aida couldn't keep from arching her back as Erys ran her fingers over the edges of her bra.

"Anything else?" Erys asked, not stopping her hands.

" _Yes_ ," Aida pushed aside the thought of Erys' hands hot on her bare breasts, and went on, "When asari have sex with other species, they interface with their partner's nervous system through contact with their skin, and feel what they feel through _their_ sex organs in order to, to come. That's the sort of buzzy feeling that you've been giving me sometimes."

Erys blinked. "You can feel that?"

Aida blinked back. "Um, yeah."

Erys tilted her head, "It's not unheard of for non-biotics to be able to sense the electrochemical bond, but it _is_ rare." Then she smiled. "Exciting."

Aida knew she was grinning stupidly, and decided she didn't care. She watched Erys lean into her hand as she ran her thumb lightly over the bases of her crests, near her ear. "So, you've been with humans, _but_ …"

"But I've never been with a human woman."

Aida couldn't help but notice that Erys appeared to be waiting for her reaction.

"Well, that's… that's great," she said, pulling her close, "Then we're sort of even."

Erys grinned, "I was hoping you'd see it that way. People usually do, but… you can never know."

"I know I want to show you a really good time tonight," Aida raised her chin, seeking Erys' lips with her own, and soon found them. "I'd like to make you come," she added a moment later, reveling in the feeling of Erys' sudden soft exhalation on her cheek. "I'm not _really_ sure where to start, but it occurs to me that as an asari, you might have some experience with inexperience."

"You could say it that way," Erys sat back to look her in the face.

"So," Aida nodded decisively, "what's the first step?"

Erys put her hands on the couch cushions on either side of Aida's head, "Let me explore you. Your body."

When she knew she could trust her own voice, Aida said, "You know where the bedroom is."

* * *

The moment Erys' dress hit the floor, Aida wrapped her arms around the smaller woman, her newly bare breasts pressing warm against Erys' back and her hands rising to cup Erys' bra.

"I'm supposed to be exploring _you_ ," Erys protested, even as she arched back into Aida's embrace.

"I know, I know," Aida mumbled into the crook of her neck, "But you're just _so_ …"

"Well, we have class _Mammalia_ in common, at least."

"And thank god for that," Aida said, running her fingers teasingly over lace — _She wore lace for this!_ — trying to locate Erys' nipples. When she found what she was looking for she pinched through the thin fabric, pressing her lips against Erys' crests. Erys groaned and Aida gasped right along, as the skin of her own belly, chest and arms lit up with connection.

Erys turned, unclasping her bra, "You really _can_ feel it, can't you?"

Aida shrugged happily and sat down on the edge of her bed, the better angle from which to fasten her mouth around one of Erys's nipples. Erys's fingers wrapped around her head instantly, rubbing absently along the hairline behind her ears.

" _Hahh_ ," Erys gasped, laughing, "this still isn't…"

"OK, but just hang on," Aida's questing fingers found her naked waist, her hips, the edge of her panties, "just…" and slipped both hands around her ass with a final contented sigh. "OK," she beamed up at Erys, hands still in place "OK, I'm done."

"Not yet you aren't," she flicked her eyes downward, and Aida remembered that her pants were still on. She fumbled with the fly as Erys stepped out of her underwear and sat down on the bed.

"Would you lie down?...face up, I think."

"Sure," Aida returned from tossing her clothing, pants, underwear, belt and all, onto the armchair, trying not to blush at Erys' gaze on her the whole way. She was pulled into a kiss when she arrived.

"Aida, I'm _very_ glad this is happening," Erys said, eyes shining in the bedroom half-light.

"Me too," Aida answered, and pulled her down with her to the bed.

The first thing Erys did was simply to lie against her, and after a moment or two Aida felt the soft tingling spread, from the already sizable area of naked touch between them over the rest of her skin. It was like being on the cusp of lightheadedness, she decided, without the worry that you're going to fall over it.

"If I do something you don't like, tell me," Erys murmured into her neck.

"...won't you know?"

"Most of the time. But how our nerves respond is not always how we do. You might have bad memories associated with certain stimuli, for example. Or you might _like_ pain. I can feel what you feel, I can't read your mind."

"Fair enough."

Then she rolled herself over Aida, the connection dulling but still present, even though it was now only knees against her hips, her hands on smooth shoulder blades, and Erys's breasts hanging just low enough to touch her own.

"And if there's something you want that I'm not giving, tell me as well. Pleasure is not always intuitive."

"Got it. And I don't. Like pain, that is."

Erys grinned. "Good, neither do I."

"Huh," Aida furrowed her brow with sudden realization, "Masochism must be _tricky_ for asari."

"Yes, partners must be very evenly matched," she sat back onto Aida's hips and crossed her arms thoughtfully, "I'm not in the scene myself but a decade or so back I helped a colleague with some surveys —"

"Oh no, Erys, _please_ can we j—" Aida muttered her way into a gasp as Erys' fingers locked around one of her nipples.

"You're very fun to tease, Aida," she said, her eyes drooping contentedly closed as she rolled the flesh between her thumb and knuckle.

Aida arched her back into the touch, nearly blurting out a warning not to squeeze any harder, that this amount of pressure was perfect but more would be too much — when she realized she didn't _have_ to. Erys' inhaled sharply as she took Aida's other nipple into her mouth, and Aida made a noise somewhat louder than she was used to making from that alone. Her breath came in slow exhales and soft gasps as Erys stroked and licked at her breasts, nipped and pinched her nipples, shuddering right along with her.

Finally, Erys lifted her head to press her mouth against Aida's, and said "Would you spread your legs for me?"

" _God_ , yes," was the shakily-voiced answer.

Erys knelt between her knees as Aida spread them, indigo hands stroking down brown belly and hips to her inner thighs. She steadied herself for a moment before bringing her fingers to the cleft of Aida's legs, running them gently up just the very edge of her flesh.

Aida made a high noise deep in her throat, and felt the asari woman shiver.

" _Oh_ ," Erys murmured, "Oh, _'ida_." She stroked her again, and then again, spreading, pressing, rubbing gentle and firm as she explored. "You're so _wet_."

Aida felt two fingers slide down and dip gently into the quick of her, and watched as Erys brought them to her mouth. Then Erys lifted her eyes for the first time since she'd begun, and said "Can I?"

Aida nodded, not much caring if she meant tongue or fingers, and slid herself higher on the mattress. Erys kissed her belly, and Aida steadied her breathing in anticipation as she kissed lower, and lower still, and took a first, tentative taste. Their sighs mingled together, and Erys took several more, stoking the warmth in Aida's belly to a fire.

She paused for one moment, breathing deeply against Aida's thigh, "That feels so _different_."

And when Erys ducked her head and laid her tongue on her once again, Aida was unprepared for how swiftly all tentativeness fell away. Erys drew the pleasure out of her hungrily, as if it were her own, because she was _making_ it her own, moaning on almost every breath, mouthing a distracted rhythm of starts and stops. _If I could only see her face_ , Aida thought, and bit her lip to keep from crying out at the very idea.

Erys had discovered the combination of licking and gentle sucking now, and Aida found herself flexing longingly for a touch that wasn't there. Somewhat experimentally, she firmly pinched her own nipple. Erys started, whimpering happily, and raised her head to give Aida a look of exaggerated reproach.

With great effort of concentration, Aida lifted herself to her elbows to look at her, "Would you put your fingers inside me?"

"Oh," Erys' eyes widened. "Yes," she said, carefully sitting up. "Um." Her hands hovered a moment above Aida's thighs before coming to rest on them.

And they remained there, until Aida said, as gently as she could manage, "Is… is everything OK?"

"Sorry!" Erys' hands fled back to her own sides, crossed under her elbows. "I've just… never done this before."

"Never…"

"I mean — I've been with women before, but only other asari. I've never been with a woman from a species evolved for penetrative se—"

Aida's brain finished going through the mental conversion.

"You mean you've never been fucked?" _Oh god_. "Oh god, I mean, you don't know what it feels like to be vaginally — to be penetra—"

"No, that's exactly it!" Erys' face flooded with relief. "I've been with males of penetrative species, so I've sensed what it's like to receive oral or to — to — dammit, to have your dick in someone's ass, but…"

Aida sat up, the gears of her thoughts turning over, "But you've never been fucked in the pussy."

"The what?"

"It's colloquial."

"Ah. I… I don't get it."

Aida took Erys' hands, hoping that would allow her to give the matter some serious thought, without looking like she was giving the idea of tossing Erys out of her bed some serious thought. The asari woman seemed at a loss for words herself, waiting on any reaction.

Aida took a breath, and met Erys' waiting gaze, "Do you _want_ to?"

"Um," Erys, smiled, nervously and small. "Yes. Is that something we can do, with just the two of us?"

Aida double checked the bit of spatial geometry she'd assembled in her head.

"Yeah. I have an idea."

Leaving Erys for a moment, she crouched by the side of the bed and slid a box out from beneath the mattress, producing a bundle of straps and snaps from it and then —

"Oh my _god_ ," she whipped the lid shut.

"What is it?" Erys had her hand over her heart.

"If I swear to you," Aida said slowly, "that I am not some kind of asari-kinked pervert, and that this is entirely a coincidence, will you believe me?"

Erys snorted, from her seat on the edge of the bed. "Yes, Aida."

Aida reopened the box and laid her favorite dildo, the purple one, in Erys' hands. The dye of the silicone blend and the color of her skin were virtually indistinguishable.

"Oh _no_ ," Erys whispered as she turned it over.

"The whole point was to buy one that _wasn't_ a real skin tone, but I guess that was pretty anthropocentric —"

Erys burst into giggles at the stricken look on Aida's face, and pulled her into a firm kiss. "It's _perfect_."

Aida helped her step into the harness, loosening here, tightening in other places, setting the angle just so — but when she leaned back on her heels to admire her work, the full effect of it still stopped her thoughts.

"God, you look good in that, Erys."

The asari woman sat back down on the bed, the phallus jutting from between her thighs. She grasped it tentatively with the tips of her fingers, squeezing it to test its firmness, exploring the smooth ridge where it swelled to form a broader tip.

"It seems… nice."

"It _is_ ," Aida murmured, running her hands over the straps of the harness where they belted across the flesh of Erys' thighs and waist, bending to put lips to silicone tip and slowly sliding her mouth down and around. She felt Erys' breath hitch.

"That's… _surprisingly_ erotic for something I can't even feel."

"I know," Aida grinned, straightening up, "I'm usually the one wearing it."

"You are?" Erys' face fell, "Are you sure you want to do things this way?"

"Yeah....Yeah, I really do," Aida repeated for emphasis, and leaned forward still on her knees. "Do you need a moment to…"

"Oh, yes, thank you, I do," Erys pulled Aida against her, the thrum between them leaping back to life as they shared a large amount of skin contact again, "You know, it usually takes at least a few encounters before my non-asari lovers have figured that out."

Pressing as much of herself to Erys' as she could while kneeling on the floor, running kisses over wherever she could reach, Aida thought: _Idiots_.

Erys pulled away when the buzz regained its lazy equilibrium, murmuring "I should return the favor," and slipped a hand between Aida's legs.

" _Fuck_ ," Aida muttered, as Erys sighed above her, fingers playing expertly over her flesh. _God, it's like_ … _It's almost like_ … The delicious emptiness inside her returned swiftly.

She pulled Erys’ hand away. "You be on top."

"You're sure?" Erys was just as breathless as Aida pulled her over her.

"Yeah. It's your first time. You should be in control."

Erys nodded, forehead touching Aida's, breathing deep and deliberate.

"Hey," Aida said, softly. "It's okay. I'm gonna guide you." She lifted her knees and reached between them to grasp the dildo, tugging Erys' hips down until she could wet its tip and use it to spread that wetness, pressing it up and, and then down. "When you're ready, just push."

Erys kissed her. And then she did.

Aida was able to let go of the dildo as it pressed wonderfully inside her, freeing both arms to wrap around Erys' back. The asari woman dropped her head to Aida's shoulder. "It's… it's not...

"It's alright," Aida murmured into her ear, "just pull out a bit and press back in, you won't hurt us… and again… _yes, oh_ … see, you're wetting more of it each time, and it slides… _mmph_ … it slides further…"

"There's a… a barrier…"

"It's just… it's how humans curve. Just keep pressing, slow— _aaah_ …"

" _Ohh_!"

Aida guided their lips together, kissing her way across the other woman's stunned face. "Just a _little_ further, Erys."

With another, longer exhalation of the same syllable, Erys brought their hips together.

"Oh. Oh 'ida."

Aida stroked her hand over Erys' cheek. "Feels pretty good, huh?"

"It feels…" Erys shook her head. "I only know the asari words for it." She shifted her knees, redistributing her weight slightly. "I feel like… like thrusting is a good idea."

"Oh, _please_ do. God, it's like… it's almost like I'm teaching you to masturbate with my own body."

"I've heard that, yes."

"It's _great_."

Pushing up to her elbows, Erys drew her hips back and pushed them slowly forward and down, and Aida instinctively rolled her own body against the movement, as the dildo pressed firm and deep inside her once more. Letting out a shaky breath, Erys pushed up to her hands and did it again, shallower but more fluid — experimenting, Aida realized, as she had with her tongue — thrusting slow and deep and then fast and shallow, running the swollen head of the dildo through the more sensitive flesh closer to her entrance until she whimpered. And her face, god, Aida could see her face now, as she gasped and bit her lip and shook with helpless exertion, and she couldn't help her hands on Erys' breasts, toying with her nipples.

Aida squeezed Erys' left nipple with one hand, and dropped her other to pinch her own at the same time, and Erys cried out, snapping her hips forward harder than she'd yet dared to try, driving the toy forward.

" _God_ yes," Aida groaned, wrapping her legs around Erys' waist as she collapsed on top of her, her skin electric fire. Erys thrust hard again, crying out a word Aida didn't even recognize, and again, face buried in Aida's neck, and again, fucking her, fucking both of them over and over. Aida lost herself in the feeling of Erys on top of her, blood and electricity and shuddering breaths pounding in her ears.

" _Ai_ — 'ida," Erys moaned between the rolling of her hips, god knows how much later, "There's all this… building. But it's not — _oh seiii_ — I can't make it —"

"You want to come?" Aida gasped, squeezing her muscles around the dildo.

" _Yes_!"

Clumsy with urgency, Aida reached for her bedside table and grasped the last thing she'd pulled from the box, slipping it over the first two fingers of her left hand. "Pull out. Fuck me from behind."

Without pausing to respond, Erys did, feeling for Aida's entrance as soon as she'd rolled to her hands and knees, and carefully, luxuriously slipping the dildo back inside her, running shaking hands over Aida's hips and ass.

"Ready?" Aida dropped her right shoulder to the bed...

" _Please_ , 'Ida."

…and pressed the switch on the microvibrator, and pressed her fingers between her legs.

Prepared for the moment, Aida's inhalation hissed through her nose, but Erys cried out unintelligibly, her hands gripping tight around Aida's hips, the weight of her body pressing forward as she lost the balance of her knees for a moment. She bent until Aida could feel her nipples on her back, like two sparks, and then Erys began thrusting again, in strong, deep strokes, deliberate but not so fast that they overwhelmed the vibrations pulsing through her abdomen. Aida began to thrust back against her, even as she stroked the vibrator against herself, pressing and teasing, feeling the rush of her climax build and build — knowing that Erys was feeling exactly the same. She was gasping Aida's name on every breath now.

"D-do you want to — to come?"

" _Yes_!" Erys moaned, on the apex of a thrust.

"Then — _ah_ _god-d_ — _tell_ me, Erys."

" _Aai_! _Oh —_ 'Ida, oh, I want to come," Erys pulled their hips together, "I want to _come_ , _please come, 'Ida, please_ …"

Aida's throat opened in a cry as the buzzing of her fingers and Erys words drove her over the edge, and Erys babbled frantically in another language above her, thrusting hard and quick and deep, fingers digging into her skin as waves of sensation rolled through her body and mind and especially, fantastically, through all the places where they touched.

Aida collapsed to the bed as the pleasure subsided, and Erys collapsed with her, the dildo slipping out from between them, awkward and wet and giggle-inducing. Together they managed to free it and toss it overboard, and then Aida, a habitual big spoon, found herself wrapped in Erys' arms instead, having her neck nuzzled. She let it be, leaving the bedroom to the silence of their breathing and the soft press of Erys' hands on her skin. For a little while at least.

"I knew I could get you to be impatient," Aida smirked.

Erys laughed good naturedly at the tease. "It's easy when your body is so fantastic," she responded, snaking an arm around Aida's belly. "That was amazing, Aida."

"It fucking _was_."

"And I noticed the resemblance to your O'Keefe."

Aida barked out a laugh, "Well, you're welcome to resume your cultural research any time," snuggling her back closer against Erys' belly. "Do you know that you're still…" and trailed off, realizing that she still didn't know what to call the biotic charge between their skin, still pulsing quietly.

"Oh! Yes. I, um. I like to feel the afterglow. Usually people don't notice. Do you want me to…"

"No, no, it's fine. You know," Aida smiled a bit wider, flexing the fingers of her left hand, "there's more to human sexual dimorphism than just the shape of our genitals?"

"Yes, I definitely noticed."

"Oh no," Aida said innocently as she thumbed the button on the microvibrator, "I'm talking about our refractory period."


End file.
